what peculiarly completes the character of the favage is his horrible fuperftition. In the moft diftant nations the favage is in this the fame. The terror of evil fpirits continually haunts him ; his God is beheld as a relentless tyrant, and is worshipped often with cruel rites, always with a heart full of horror and fear. In all the numerous accounts of favage worship, one trace of filial dependence is not to be found. The very reverse of that happy idea is the hell of the ignorant mind. Nor is this barbarifm confined alone to those ignorant tribes, whom we call favages. The vulgar of every country poffefs it in certain degrees, proportionated to their opportunities of converfation with the more enlightened. All the virtues and charities, which either dignify human nature or render it amiable, are cultivated and called forth into action by fociety. The favage life on the contrary, if we may be allowed the expreffion, inftinctively narrows the mind; and thus, by the exclufion of the nobler feelings,

prepares

he expires, his diffevered limbs are boiled in the war-kettle, and devoured by his executioners. And fuch is the power of custom and the ideas of honour, that the unhappy fufferer under all this torment betrays no fign of fear or grief. On the contrary he upbraids his executioners with their ignorance of the art of tormenting, and boafts how many of their kindred had found their grave in his belly, whom he had put to death in a much feverer man

ner.

vere want.

prepares it, as a foil, ready for every vice. Sordid difpofition and base ferocity, together with the most unhappy fuperftition, are every where the proportionate attendants of ignorance and feAnd ignorance and want are only removed by intercourfe and the offices of fociety. So felf-evident are thefe pofitions, that it requires an apology for infifting upon them; but the apology is at hand. He who has read knows how many eminent writers *, and he who has con

verfed

*The author of that voluminous work, Hiftoire Philofophique & Politique des Etablissemens & du Commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, is one of the many who affert that the favage is happier than the civil life. His reafons are thus abridged: The favage has no care or fear for the future, his hunting and fishing give him a certain fubfiftence. He fleeps found, and knows not the diseases of cities. He cannot want what he does not defire, nor desire that which he does not know, and vexation or grief do not enter his foul. He is not under the control of a fuperior in his actions; in a word, fays our author, the favage only fuffers the evils of nature.

If the civilized, he adds, enjoy the elegancies of life, have better food, and are more comfortably defended againft the change. of feafons, it is ufe which makes thefe things neceffary, and they are purchased by the painful labours of the multitude who are the bafis of fociety. To what outrages is not the man of civil life expofed; if he has property, it is in danger; and government or authority is, according to this author, the greatest of all evils. If there is a famine in the north of America, the favage, led by the

verfed knows how many respectable names, connect the idea of innocence and happiness with the life of the favage and the unimproved ruftic.

To

fix

wind and the fun, can go to a better clime; but in the horrors of famine, war, or peftilence, the ports and barriers of polished states place the fubjects in a' prison, where they must perish—Il refteroit

encore

-There still remains an infinite difference between the lot of the civilized and the favage; a difference, toute entiere, all entirely to the difadvantage of fociety, that injuftice which reigns in the inequality of fortunes and conditions. "In fine, fays he, as the wish for independence is one of the first instincts of man, he who can join to the poffeffion of this primitive right, the moral fecurity of a fubfiftence, (which we were just told the favage could do) is incomparably more happy than the rich man furrounded with laws, fuperiors, prejudices, and fashions, which endanger his liberty."

Such are the fentiments of Abbè Raynal, a writer whofe fpirited manner, and interefting fubject, have acquired him many readers. As he is not fingular in his eftimate of favage happiness, his arguments merit examination. And a view of the full tendency of his affertions will fufficiently refute his conclufions. Nothing can be more evident, than that if habit deftroy the relish of the elegancies of life, habit alfo will deftroy the pleasure of hunting and fishing, when these are the fole bufinefs of the favage. If the favage has no care and no fuperior, these very circumstances naturally brutalize his mind, and render him vicious, fierce, and felfish. Nor is he fo free from care, as fome philofophers on their couches of down are apt to dream. Because hunting and fishing feem pleasant to us, are they alfo a pleasure to the wretch who in all feasons must follow them for his daily sustenance? You may as well maintain that a postilion, jaded with fatigue, and shivering

with

fix the character of the favage is therefore neceffary, ere we examine the affertion, that "it had been happy for both the old and the new worlds, if

*

with wet and cold, is extremely happy, because gentlemen ride on horseback for their pleasure That we cannot want what we do not defire, nor defire what we do not know, are just positions; but does it follow, that fuch a ftate is happier than that which brings the wishes and cares of civil life? By no means: For according to this argument, insensibility, and happiness proceed in the fame gradation, and of confequence an oyster is the happieft of all animals. The advantages afcribed to the favage over the civilized life, in the time of war and famine, in the equality, of rank, and fecurity of liberty, offer an outrage to common fenfe, and are striking inftances that no paradox is too grofs for the reveries of modern philofophy. This author quite forgets what dangers the favages are every where expofed to; how their lands, if of any value, are fure to be feized by their more powerful neighbours, and millions of their perfons enflaved by the more polished states. He quite forgets the infinite diftance between the resources of the focial and favage life; between the comforts administered by society to infirmity and old age, and the miferable state of the favage when he can no longer pursue his hunting and fishing. He also quite forgets the infinite difference between the difcourfe of the favage hut, and the cœna deorum, the friendship and converfation of refined and elevated underftandings. But to philofophize is the contagion which infects the efprits forts of the continent; and under the mania of this difeafe, there is no wonder that common fense is so often crucified. It is only the reputation of thofe who fupport fome opinions that

will

And our author in reality goes as far, "Temoin cet Ecoffois,-Witnefs that "Scotchman, fays he, who being left alone on the isle of Fernandez, was

"only

if the Eaft and Weft-Indies had never been difcovered." The bloodshed and the attendant miferies which the unparalleled rapine and cruelties of the

66

will apologise for the labour of refuting them. We may therefore, it is hoped, be forgiven, if, en bagatelle, we fmile at the triumph of our author, who thus fums his up arguments: Apres tout, un mot peut terminer ce grand procés-After all, one word will "decide this grand difpute, fo ftrongly canvaffed among philofo"phers: Demand of the man of civil life, if he is happy? "Demand of the favage if he is miferable? If both answer, "No, the difpute is determined." By no means; for the beaft that is contented to wallow in the mire, is by this argument in a happier ftate than the man who has one wish to fatisfy, however reasonably he may hope to do it by his industry and virtue.

"only unhappy while his memory remained; but when his natural wants "fo engrolled him that he forgot his country, his language, his name, and "even the articulation of words, this European, at the end of four years, "found himfelf cafed of the burden of focial life, in having the happiness "to lofe the ufe of reflection, of thofe thoughts which led him back to the "paft, or taught him to dread the future." But this is as erroneous in fact, as fuch happiness is falfe in philofophy. Alexander Selkirk fell into no fuch state of happy idiotism. By his own account he acquired indeed the greatest tranquillity of mind, which arofe from religious fubmiffion to his fate. He had with him a bible, fome books of mathematics and practical divinity; the daily perufal of which both fortified his patience and amused his tedious hours. And he profeffed that he feared he would never again be fo good a christian. In his domestic economy he fhewed every exertion of an intelligent mind. When Capt. Rogers found him in 1709, the accounts which he gave of the fprings and vegetables of the ifland, were of the greatest service to the ship's company. And the captain found him to able a failor, that he immediately made him mate of his fhip. Having feen Capt. Rogers's veffel at fea, he made a fire in the night, in confequence of which a beat was fent to examine the fhorc. He faid he had feen fome Spaniards at different times land on the island, but he had always fled from them, judging they would certainly put him to death, in order to prevent any account which he might be able to give of the South Seas. This is not the reafoning of the man who has forgotten his name and his country. And even his amufements difcover humour, and a mind by no means wrapt up in dull or favage tranquillity. He had taught a number of his tame goats and cats to dance on their hinder legs; and he himself fung, and danced along with them. This he exhibited to Capt. Rogers and his company.

The